Defense of Korhal
by Ryodin
Summary: A quick one-shot from the PoV of a Viking pilot during the opening cinematic of Heart of the Swarm. I'm interpreting that scene as occurring on Korhal and as actual foreshadowing to later in the campaign.


Defense of Korhal

AN: I took the opening cinematic as direct foreshadowing to later in the campaign. After seeing one specific part of it I decided to do a quick one-shot following one of the defenders.

I own no rights to Starcraft and I make no profit from this.

* * *

James "Raider" Davis sprinted across the tarmac toward his Viking unit. He was in the first responder group ready to hit the skies at a moment's notice on duty at sector 2 starport.

He barreled up the ramp and jumped into the cockpit of his waiting Viking. An emergency cold-start had been initiated minutes ago when the call went out so he had very little to do before getting in the air.

Zerg were attacking Korhal, his home. Any sortie against Zerg that he had taken part in had been mop-up so far, Lieutenant Davis primarily flew harassment against Raynor's Raiders. He was good at that, ship-to-ship and fire support against other Terrans; he'd gotten his call sign for it even.

He hoped he learned fast against a superior Zerg force.

Estimates were in the billions for the Zerg strength. Many millions died on the initial drop but their orbital defenses were down now and the creatures poured down from orbit. Now they finally made their move on the capitol.

"_Blue six,_" a voice came over the radio, to him, "_join Red leader. New designation is Red three._"

His helmet's overlay indicated Red leader for him, Davis hit his afterburners to get into the fight. Some kind of massive Zerg was near the upper-deck, his maximum operational altitude, and flyers were pouring out of it to protect their fleshy transports drifting down.

Some artillery fire was still coming up, but the guns were quickly being quieted by the swarm.

Once he reached the dogfight he was thankful for the overlay- blood, smoke and debris was everywhere. Only the IFF highlights from his electronic suite could identify anything in the haze.

They were sorely outgunned, about a dozen Vikings were left of Red group to combat nearly a hundred mutalisk and a few other fliers. Slower first responders would be arriving to reinforce them soon, at least.

As Davis entered the fight he was able to target on several enemy signatures and unload his first Rip missiles at them. He was able to see the effect of one shredding what he understood to be the face of a mutalisk to bloody ribbons as he passed.

"_Red seven, four mutes on my tail, could use some help!"_

_I should stick to defensive strategies._

"_Red ten, splash two."_

Glaives filled the air; Davis constantly had an eye on his 3D radar to let out bursts of maneuvering thrust to evade them, though many still grazed his craft.

"_Red four, splash one."_

"_Red six, fox two!"_

An explosion of flame and steel in front of him, an ally signature winked out. He flew past the debris and fired on a tentative set of locks chasing another ally. Barely half found their marks but it was enough to pull them off the other craft.

"_Red nine, RTB, you're leaking fuel."_

"_I can't-_" a loud explosion interrupted, "_argh! I can't disengage!"_

Several more glaives tore past him. Davis continued firing on what locks he could while desperately trying to ditch his pursuers. He spotted a swarm of mutalisk close behind Red nine and fired another salvo of Rip missiles.

Another hit tore across his wing.

_Don't be stupid James._ He banked hard and then gained altitude at full throttle, they struggled to fly with him but didn't break.

"_Red nine, I've broken away. Enroute to base."_

_This is a bad idea!_ Davis hit his transformation switch.

The machine shifted around him. His chair fell out from below him, and he caught himself on the floor below it. A burst of maneuvering thrust spun him around to face his six 'o'clock. Davis quickly jumped back behind where his chair had been just a moment before his leg space pivoted and broke both his legs. His visor slipped up and the whole compartment shifted down. Now he was standing, facing the pursuing mutalisk in assault mode, hurtling through the air.

His chain-guns came only immediately, blazing a quick line across their wings. A volley of glaives were hurled at him with perfect accuracy, which let him boost to the side and evade the whole group.

"_Red three are you insane?!"_

They shot past him, screeching; Davis wheeled around and peppered them again. Seconds later he was transforming back into fighter mode and pleased to watch three of them start an uncontrolled descent. _Hopefully their wings can't come back together before they hit the ground._

He fell out of the cluster of battle while transforming.

"_All units, defensive line forming at the capitol building. The Zerg have broken through tertiary defenses. ETA one minute."_

Davis finally got his unit out of stall and back into powered flight. He could see the defense line forming. Moving through the city streets were the Zerg, mostly a sea of zerglings and more ultralisk than he wanted to admit. The first group was racing toward the defense line.

"_Forty-five seconds-"_

"_This is Gold leader, Siege tanks operational in sixty seconds!"_

Davis fell in line behind two Banshees tearing it for the defense line.

_They need more time_. Below he saw a siege tank making a firing retreat from the tertiary defense line. When it slowed to turn onto the main road the ultralisk following caught up and crushed half of it. It started to barrel toward the final defense line.

The marines could hold the line against the zerglings accompanying it, but if that thing got through before the siege tanks were ready it could tear a hole in the line to let the rest through.

The two Banshees shot past it. He fell to the ground like a stone, mid-transformation. He hit the ground an instant after his machine had legs and pivoted around to face the building-sized creature.

_Just delay it._ His chain-guns opened up on its left knee. A moment later its massive kaiser-blade smashed into his machine. Davis screamed inside his small cockpit, metal smashed into his left leg; the Viking sailed through the air and smashed into the nearby office building.

Davis just barely managed to right himself and fire again on it as it rushed away. It reached his maximum range and James kept screaming, in anger and pain.

Suddenly the beast buckled and hit the ground.

It would heal soon enough, _but it should be enough._

Zerglings crawled across his disabled chassis. The screech of tearing metal echoed through the cockpit alongside his blazing chain-guns until the guns went silent.

Blades tore into his unit and eventually into him, his chest and leg caught shallow cuts as the creatures tried to dig him out of his inert armor.

Then the world exploded around him.

* * *

Davis opened his eyes. His ears still rang; the crater in front of him was from a siege round. After that it seemed the Zerg were content to assume he was dead. Zerglings and ultralisk rushed past, mutalisk filled the sky.

He could see the defense line shredding hundreds of the monsters, hulking ultralisk would suddenly list and hit the ground. Every second hundreds died, but hundreds more broke through. The rapid bursts of light from so many rifles began to vanish. The booming shots from the siege cannons also faded away.

The capitol was lost.

A rushing ultralisk suddenly slowed and lumbered toward him.

Davis found his maneuvering controls and released the safety on his self-destruct. He was going to die, but then he had assumed that back on the tarmac. He'd hoped of course, but those were weak hopes. There were so many people on Korhal and they'd all been through so much pain that he just wanted to ease it, dying wasn't so bad if he could help so many people.

And how many people wouldn't die now that the siege cannons could decimate so many Zerg? How many people would this monster in front of him no longer be able to kill?

As it closed on him he saw the clouds part. Bright and shining, the Behemoth-class battlecruiser Atlas broke through the cloud line. It shone so bright it was as if on fire. It came down about where sector four should be. His family was back there.

The monster swung its blades at him, but a quick boost forward dislodged him and threw his machine at its face.

_It's great to be close to my wife and kid, but it's better to keep the Zerg far away from them_.

He hit the self-destruct the moment his frame hit the beast. For one moment he could hear the ignition burst in his vespene tank.

* * *

AN: I wrote this all at once in a sudden burst of why-the-hell-not. Hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
